These New Indie Running Shops Are Fighting the Retail Apocalypse, One “Bomb Run” at a Time

The storefront is on the ground floor of a recently built, nondescript, multi-use tower near downtown Austin. You might walk right past it and notice nothing but the fit-looking people bustling in and out. Peek inside, and you'll quickly realize this is no ordinary retail outpost. University-style lockers line one entire wall. Groups of runners mill about, some set to venture out to the nearby running trail around Town Lake, others just returned and making their way to the store's showers.

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Behind them, a pink neon sign shines with a mantra to remind everyone present why they gather to train: “Stronger faster further together.” With all the revelry, it's easy to forget that you're not in the locker room of some quasi-elite track team—and that you are surrounded by an artistic-looking installation of stylish running shoes (think: muted colors, fewer neons) and the sort of running apparel you wouldn't be embarrassed to wear while grabbing a post-run drink.

Welcome to The Loop Running Supply Company, Austin's latest running specialty store. The Loop opened in December, and it's one of a new wave of shops that is fighting the nationwide decline in independent running stores. Facing competition from online retailers, an oversaturated market, and corporate consolidation, these new indies are fighting back with a relatively new business model that encompasses not just retail but coaching, organizing events, and creating a place for runners to call home.

Travis Hallmark

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“The market is evolving,” Ryan Hess, a co-founder of The Loop, told Runner’s World. “It used to be that you could be a specialty store and just open up your doors and you’d just get all this drive and force of business, but now there’s so many different activities and so much stuff going on, especially in an active, hip city like Austin. You have to give the customer something that they’re not getting anywhere else.”

Austin is a textbook example of this dramatic shift. Although the city has a vibrant running community—over 20 different organized groups meet for training on a weekly basis, and according to Strava, it ranks 8th out of all U.S. cities in terms of runners per capita—some of its biggest running stores have closed abruptly in the past five years. Former community hub RunTex shuttered in 2013. Texas Running Company recently closed its downtown store, and Hill Country Running Company before that. Rogue Running shut down its retail location in nearby Cedar Park and sold its downtown retail operations to JackRabbit. Luke’s Locker, which once stood just a few doors down from The Loop, closed its Austin location in January 2017.

Across the country, the number of running stores peaked in 2007, with 1,343 stores open, according to the Census Bureau. That number dropped to 1,254 in 2012 (the last year for which data is available). The past several years have been tumultuous for larger running retail chains. City Sports, a running apparel retailer, filed for bankruptcy in 2015. In January 2017, The Finish Line sold JackRabbit, its specialty running division for a purchase price of “zero” to CriticalPoint Capital, LLC, according to a regulatory filing. Nine months prior to the sale, the net loss for JackRabbit was $18.6 million, according to SGBMedia.

Even with this retail apocalypse in full swing, Ryan and his co-founder—his wife, Pam Hess—wanted to create a running store that would unify the local community.

Travis Hallmark

“We want to bring everyone together,” Ryan Hess explained. “We want people to feel a part of it, and just get this elation and feeling of energy when you come in. You can build a great culture around your vibes, how you treat your customers, your training groups, and how they treat the city.”

The Hesses' vision for their store has come together in a 1,500-square-foot space that borders downtown Austin and the bustling Town Lake Trail. Just over half of the store’s footprint is occupied by the retail side, which includes high-end apparel brands such as Satisfy and Tracksmith, while the other half of the store is used as the meeting space for the Gilbert’s Gazelles run club. The club was founded by Olympian Gilbert Tuhabonye, a renowned local coach who came to the United States after surviving civil war in Burundi. Together, The Loop and the Gazelles share the rent.

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Six days a week, multiple running groups of all levels come together at the store, where they receive coaching, embark on runs around the city, or complete core classes. Even non-Gazelles meet frequently at the store to crank out runs on the continuous 10-mile loop around Town Lake.

“I think doing these events and these group runs and all this stuff is allowing runners to have something they’re not getting anywhere else,” Hess said of the store's calendar, which features events like a weekly “bomb run,” an Austin favorite where one runner in a group drops “a bomb”—a surge in pace that the others try to maintain for the remaining duration of the run. “That’s a huge driving force for our business,” he said.

In an effort to compete with the ease of online retailers, The Loop offers same-day delivery within Austin. They also provide amenities in the form of a VIP membership that allows customers to rent a locker, receive store discounts, and use the store’s showers after completing a workout. Members can even arrange to have their locker stocked with their favorite energy bars or hydration products.

All of these stores have opened within the last six years and feature a mix of coaching and event services for their communities. Mill City Running offers membership to its race team, which enters 2018 as the Twin Cities’ largest registered run club, according to the store’s website. As a member of the team, runners receive a team singlet, a 15 percent discount, a training plan, and guaranteed entry into the Medtronic TC 10-mile race, among other offerings. The San Francisco Running Company hosts a run club as well as featured speaker events. Vancouver Running offers “Flight Crew” memberships where runners can participate in group runs and receive apparel and store discounts. Bond Running & Coffee combines running retail with a cafe which “compliment[s] the running lifestyle.”

Terry Schalow, executive director of the Independent Running Retailers Association (IRRA), told SGBMedia in 2016 that communities are embracing the benefits of creating “main street” shopping experiences, which could actually prove to be the “perfect time” to open a running specialty store.

“The community-health benefits supported by specialty running stores, along with the premium product and shopping experience that these stores provide, are a natural fit within the ‘main street’ focus,” Schalow said. “What this all pivots on, however, is the ability of individual stores to create a unique and engaging experience for their local customers. How that experience is provided is one of the channel’s ongoing challenges, but the stores that figure it out will remain healthy and experience growth.”

So, what does this shift in running specialty mean for running culture as a whole? While larger brick-and-mortar locations close across the country, how can the running store stay alive in a fast-changing market?

According to Pam Hess, it will take an evolving approach to what a shop can provide: “It has to be bigger than a storefront.”

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